Sometimes you have to walk away
by Captain Howdy
Summary: Ever wondered about Ray Tracer's Past? This one's for you. R/r please!


Sometimes you have toÂ walk away  
  
By Nic  
  
Â   
  
(BTW, this is set between the end of season 3 and season 4)  
  
Disclaimer:None of this belongs to me blah blah.Except the bit about Ray's past.  
  
Â   
  
The sun was rising over Mainframe. Ray Tracer sat alone at the end of the pier, turning the package over in his hands. He knew what it was. but to open it would mean he would have to remember something which was painful.  
  
It meant that he would have to lose some of his happiness,his confidence.  
  
Â  *You could go out now and toss it into the web* a voice in the back of his mind said. *Wouldn't it be nice to forget Max and Christie? To pretend that they were deleted before you even existed?*  
  
Â Â  Ray shook the thought from his mind.  
  
"Sometimes the only way you can go forward is to go back," he said aloud.  
  
"Hey,Surfer,you okay?"  
  
Ray cursed mentally. Dot.Â   
  
Â Â "Yes,Dot,just fine."  
  
"You don't sound fine."Â Dot came over and sat down by him.Â Â Â Â   
  
Â Â Â  Ray sighed. The people in Mainframe were starting to know him too well. Max always said that was a bad thing for a web surfer.....I'm thinking about Max,Ray thought. Now that was a bad sign.  
  
"Umm,hello,Mainframe to Ray."Â Dot said.  
  
Ray made a big decision.  
  
"Dot, do you mind if I get some stuff of my chest?"  
  
Dot shrugged.  
  
"Sure, fire away.  
  
Â Â Â Â Â  "When I was first created, there were only two other web surfers. We were....prototypes I guess, because the old search engines were getting to slow or something. I was never told.  
  
Â  There was Max, who was a one bionome who had volutentered for the project. Christie was a sprite, but I have no idea where she came from.  
  
Â Â Â Â  When I was first activated, we were in the web. The first words I can remember hearing were from Max,  
  
"See, I told you this one would work!"  
  
I can't remeber Christie's reply. The details from then on are blurry, but I can kindÂ  of remember them telling me about why I was created, and why we were all together.  
  
Christie said it was to see who outlasted who, and I can remember her leering at Max. "  
  
Ray stopped, and stared down at the package in his hands.  
  
Dot put her hand on his shoulder.  
  
"You don't have to tell me this,if you don't want to."  
  
Ray shook his head.  
  
"I soon got to know them better and we became great friends. But Christie loved antagonising Max, and sometimes things got pretty bad between them.They wouldn't speak for ages and then, suddenly, they were best friends again. Another thing about Christie is that sometimes she would forget to meet us when we were due to leave systems, or stop in the middle of a sentance and ask us what she was talking about.  
  
Â Â Â  I put it down to absent mindedness,but it was somethingÂ Â Â Â Â  much, much worse."  
  
Â  Ray stopped again, and turned to look at Dot. There were tears leaking from the bottom of his goggles.  
  
Dot was about to say something, but Ray cut her off.  
  
" No, I have to do this." he gulped, then continued,  
  
"I remember we were staying in a hotel in a system not to far away from this one. Max sent me out for some energy shakes and when I came back, I heard screming and shouting from behind the closed door of our room.  
  
Â I didn't want to intrude, so I took board for a ride.When I came back, Christie was gone, and Max had a bandage roundÂ his head. The was blood on the wall."  
  
Â Â Â  Dot decided this was a good time to wrap her arm round Ray's shoulders.  
  
"When I asked Max about it he said that he had cut his head and the blood had got on the wall. And that Christie had gone out for some dressings. I didn't believe him,but I didn't say anything. In the morning Chrsitie still wasn't back. Max said she had probably forgotten again and laughed, but the laughter sounded hollow. We were waiting at the portal for ages and when Christie did turn up, she had huge cuts on her faceÂ but again, I didn't say anything. Everything seemed to go downhill from there. Max and christie would fight all the time and Christie was always spending our credits on energy shakes.  
  
Â Â Â  Then, while I was waiting in the lobby of the hotel for Max and Christie to stop arguing, Christie came down with this really strange expression on her face. She told me that Max was not coming with us. I knew something was up, so I asked why. And then...and...then.."  
  
Â Ray began sobbing quietly.Dot wrapped her arms around him and gave him a bigger hug.  
  
Bob looked at Mouse. They had been watching from where the pier started for a while now.  
  
"Jealous?" he asked.  
  
Mouse shook her head.  
  
" I knew that Ray had problems with his past the momnet I met him,sugah. Who he tells is his business."  
  
Â Â Â Â Â  Ray sniffed and looked at Dot. She smiled.  
  
"It's okay,go on."  
  
"And then she told me she had deleted him, and that she would commit suicide."  
  
Dot looked shocked.  
  
"Why?"  
  
"I'll tell you that in a minute. When she told me that, it felt like my life had dropped apart. I called the local guardian and he took Christie away to a mental instition. I then found out that even though Christie's armour had protected her from disintergrating in the web, the materiel it was made of was slowly making her go crazy, and making her feel tired all the time."  
  
Â  "that's terrible." Dot said.  
  
"No. The worse thing is that Max kept on calling the scientists who ran the experiment, but they said that they couldn't do anything. And they had already started making holographic web-surfers."  
  
Dot motioned to the package.  
  
"what's in there?"  
  
" The notice telling me that Christie's committed suicide, like she said she would."  
  
Ray laughed bitterly.  
  
"They couldn't stop her any longer, I guess. But I suppose maybe she wouldn't have, if I had actually visited her."  
  
"You didn't?"  
  
"Couldn't face her."  
  
He started crying again.  
  
Dot rocked him, like she did to little Enzo when he had nightmares.  
  
"Sometimes you have to walk away." 


End file.
